We’re excited to announce today that we’re taking some of the best that BlackBerry has to offer, and making it available to more than one billion people worldwide.

Just as we injected the hardened security of BlackBerry 10 into the secure Android platform running on PRIV and the coming DTEK50, we’re bringing the super productivity suite known as BlackBerry Hub+ from BlackBerry 10 to, not just PRIV (see right) or our coming DTEK50 smartphone, but ALL Android M(arshmallow) smartphones.

BlackBerry Hub+ is the first pure software offering from the new Mobility Solutions Group. But it’s a natural move for us. Not only is it the latest example of BlackBerry’s fast-emerging software business (already at a run rate exceeding $500 million a year), but it fulfills our promise to make the fruits of decades of R&D and software development as widely available to users of other devices and other platforms as possible.

BlackBerry Hub+ for Android is a new suite of apps that should be familiar to any BlackBerry 10 user. It helps centralize all of the user’s communications into a single, unified interface, as well as help streamline many other productivity tasks such as Calendaring, Passwords, and many others.

However, starting today, you can make a dent in your overstuffed social and e-mail accounts by downloading a trial version of Hub+ for free from Google Play. The trial includes a suite of applications, including the BlackBerry Hub, Calendar and Password Keeper. Note: the BlackBerry Hub+ applications are available only for devices running Android 6.0 Marshmallow which meet certain performance criteria.

After 30 days, users can continue using the apps for free by opting to view occasional ads, or subscribe to the entire suite of apps for just 99 cents a month, which will include additional powerful time-saving features: Contacts, Tasks, Device Search, Notes and Launcher (as noted above, these features already come integrated into all BlackBerry 10, PRIV and DTEK50 phones).

The easiest way to try out BlackBerry Hub+ is to go to the Google Play Store on your smartphone and search for BlackBerry Hub, and then download the BlackBerry Hub+ Services app onto your phone. Then click the Hub+ Services app icon on your home screen and tap “Apps by BlackBerry” to install the entire suite of applications or select a few of your favorites.

We’re looking to expand access to Hub+ to customers running Android 5.0 Lollipop, and also investigating how best to deliver the BlackBerry experience on iOS devices, too. Bottom line: Expect to see us bring more similar software offerings to enterprise and individual customers soon.

]]>http://blogs.blackberry.com/2016/08/bringing-the-quintessential-blackberry-experience-to-other-platforms/feed/0Blogger-GorgeousInGreyericylaiGorgeous in Grey blogger Ty Alexander appreciates the Hub's unified mailbox. (Credit: Gorgeous in Grey)android marshmallowFor Mother’s Day: Best Mobile Productivity Tips from BlackBerry Momshttp://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/05/for-mothers-day-best-mobile-productivity-tips-from-blackberry-moms/
http://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/05/for-mothers-day-best-mobile-productivity-tips-from-blackberry-moms/#respondFri, 08 May 2015 12:00:22 +0000http://blogs.blackberry.com/?p=26090/ Read More]]>My mother started working in the early 1970s, part of the post-Mad Men generation that was the first to enjoy the freedom – and pressure – to strive professionally, while still handling most of the domestic chores. Naturally, she knew how to get things done. She was a goal-setter and a list-maker, always finding scraps of recycled paper to write down task lists. My brother – that’s him, the cowboy – says he picked up the listmaking habit from her.

As a technology lover, I’m sure my mom would’ve embraced the smartphone as an even better way to track tasks and get things done. For Mother’s Day, I asked BlackBerry employees to share their best productivity tips that they learned from their mothers, their spouses that are moms, or themselves employ as time-pressed working moms. They came back with a bunch of great stories, work tips and lifehacks.

I’m a mom of two young kids, a 6 year old son, and a 2 year old daughter. Between a very high-energy, demanding job, 2 kids + 1 husband (yes, I only have time for one!) who are active and need my attention, plus taking care of myself at the gym and finding time to see friends, it takes some balance and organization.

One Thursday evening, my husband and I decided to take the kiddos out for a mid-week dinner. A rare occasion, but sometimes between both our jobs and the kids’ schedules (karate practice!), we just have to concede that the restaurant will cook a better meal than we will. Midway through my dinner, I look down at my BlackBerry Passport and see that blinking red light. Personally, I’m addicted to the blinking light. It blinks when I have a dentist appointment, it blinks for my daughter’s dance lessons, it blinks when my husband is BBM-ing to let me know he can’t do the daycare run, and it blinks when I’m out for dinner and my VP needs an urgent document from me.

We had a pretty big event coming up on the weekend, and he needed me to create a short biography of one of our guest speakers. I was able to access a Word .doc template from my work perimeter and write up a really quick bio and fire it off to my VP. All this while preventing my 2 year old from climbing on the table and throwing crayons in her brother’s plate. (Who needs to know that small detail?? Certainly not my VP.) Anyway, my VP was happy with the quick turn-around, and I got back to my dinner with my family and, of course, my glass of wine.

I truly rely on my BlackBerry Passport to help me multitask my life. Not just for work, but for taking care of the kids and managing my personal schedule. Bless that blinking red light!

Jennifer B.

With 2 active boys, having everything at hand is essential. With my BlackBerry, I can send a message to their after-school program director, check the location of tonight’s baseball game, and get a reminder that we need to get a friend’s birthday gift, all while waiting for the elevator at work. Combine that with being able to look up how big a polar bear is compared to a grizzly bear (“Mommy, I was just wondering…”), or find a new muffin recipe while waiting at the dentist’s office, and I can’t imagine a more important tool.

I use my BlackBerry device to make connections I wouldn’t have otherwise been able to make. My Dad recently took some pictures of my kids on his farm, and I used NFC to upload them onto my phone and post them to Facebook, sharing them out to people who otherwise would never have seen special pictures he had taken of the kids with a young calf.

More recently, I used BBM to communicate with my 9-year old during the middle of school. On a rare ‘BYOD to school’ day, he used his iPod Touch to send me a picture of the pizza slice he got for lunch. He wanted to share it because he thought it looked funny.

With my BlackBerry, I feel like I can be there for my kids and still be the colleague and employee I need to be. Emergency doctor visit? No problem, I can be there, but make sure nothing gets left behind at work either.

Tammy R.

I am our household organizer. My BlackBerry works overtime as I schedule pretty much all our lives, using the Calendar and Tasks to sync grocery needs and tournaments. Because I am raising three teenagers and have a husband who works shifts, it’s the only way to know who’s coming and going and who’s going to do what in the household chore bucket. Even when my husband is on the night shift, I kiss him goodnight via BBM. It’s keeping our marriage going because we can always communicate. Now if I could only convince my mother to use!

Persis N.

My mum works at the bank and loves to budget. Every year she helps me plan my monthly expenses. Honestly, what better way to keep a track of what bills to pay when than the BlackBerry Calendar app. I’ve set up recurring events with reminders for mortgage, hydro, gas, internet, phone payments. It keeps me ahead of the game.

Oscar V.

My wife and I use the BlackBerry Calendar app heavily, too. Not necessarily for budgeting, but for birthday reminders, dinner reminders, appointments, meetings. We send each other calendar invites all the time.

I routinely get my children to help me help them. For example, I could do everything for them in the morning – and I have when they were little, but I routinely get them to help me now that they’re a bit older with clear expectations about when we need to move through that exit door. It shows them that it’s ok to ask for help. I also acknowledge when we’re successful, and they are proud when we make it out early. Now that I look back, I also helped in a similar way when I was a kid. For example, I was cooking dinner for everyone by the time I was 10 (obviously with oversight). I guess that’s where I get it from.

Tony F.

When I’d get flustered with too much to do, my mom would tell me to “take a breath, make a list, and start chipping away.” Maybe that’s why I now live in Trello!

Jennifer M.

I find the Stopwatch in BlackBerry 10 really helps to get us out the door faster. I turn it on and we “race” to see who can get ready first before it runs out of time.

I also like to help my 5 year old be independent, so two quick things I did to help foster this are setting up the Phone app in my BlackBerry to have pictures at the top that he can select to call his Dad or Grandparents, and teaching him how to check the Weather app in the morning so he knows which clothes to pick out based on the forecast.

Greg K.

We use the Glympse location feature in BBM. My wife sends out a BBM message to my kids and me asking where we are and when we will be home so she knows when to start supper. Instead of a bunch of detailed replies, we send a Glympse when we are about 30 minutes away. That way she can get an update to location when it is convenient for her.

Laura B.

For all of you busy Moms and Dads out there, you’ve got to use the BBM group ‘List’ option for your grocery list. That way, whether you or your husband go grocery shopping, either of you can access the list and check things off as you buy them. Thanks to Jen below for that tip.

Helen F.

I also use a BBM Group List for groceries. It’s so easy to quickly add items as they run out in the kitchen, and even to add while my husband is grocery shopping (sometimes driving him crazy!).

***

Got any productivity tips of your own to share? I’d love see them in the comments!

]]>http://blogs.blackberry.com/2015/05/for-mothers-day-best-mobile-productivity-tips-from-blackberry-moms/feed/0Busy mum cooking at homeericylaimom eric bruce halloweenpassport typingiStock_000007465509_MediumBusy mum cooking at home running late and talking on the phoneYoung Hispanic woman (20s) traveling with baby girl (6 months), in car seat, talking on mobile phone.How to set up Outlook to wirelessly synchronize your contacts and calendar with a BlackBerry Z10 smartphonehttp://blogs.blackberry.com/2013/02/set-up-outlook-sync-with-blackberry-z10/
http://blogs.blackberry.com/2013/02/set-up-outlook-sync-with-blackberry-z10/#respondMon, 11 Feb 2013 22:10:33 +0000http://blogs.blackberry.com/?p=15950/ Read More]]>Do you use Microsoft Outlook 2010, 2007 or 2003 to store your contacts and calendar on your computer and want to wirelessly synchronize these items with your BlackBerry Z10, but your email provider doesn’t support these features? If so, today I’d like to show you how to you can sync these items wirelessly between your BlackBerry Z10 and Outlook using Outlook.com and the Microsoft Outlook Connector.

We’ll use your existing Microsoft account or connect Outlook with your BlackBerry Z10 using the new Outlook.com service from Microsoft. The reason for doing this is simple as well; these accounts support wireless synchronization with your BlackBerry Z10. Since Outlook makes it easy to manage multiple accounts, you can enjoy the benefits of wireless synchronization with your email provider as well as wireless synchronization of your contacts and calendar.

]]>http://blogs.blackberry.com/2013/02/set-up-outlook-sync-with-blackberry-z10/feed/0tywill1How BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 revolutionizes Email, Calendar and Contacts – again: Part 2 of 2http://blogs.blackberry.com/2012/02/playbook-email-calendar-contacts-part-2/
http://blogs.blackberry.com/2012/02/playbook-email-calendar-contacts-part-2/#respondTue, 21 Feb 2012 19:30:30 +0000http://blogs.blackberry.com/?p=12790]]>The name BlackBerry® is synonymous with mobile email, and thanks to the expertise of RIM® family members – Tungle for Calendar and Gist for Contacts – we’ve extended our messaging DNA in some really compelling ways with the introduction of BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet OS 2.0. Because the new Email, Calendar, and Contacts applications all include people-centric information, we’ve integrated social functionality into all three . For example, you don’t have to leave the calendar to get information about the attendees for that meeting. Let’s dive in and take a look at these new features.

Calendar with social integration

Like the new Messages app that includes a universal Inbox, so you can conveniently manage all your email in one place, the new Calendar app in PlayBook OS 2.0 allows you to manage all your appointments and events in one place – including the ability to manage both work and personal (Gmail®, Hotmail®, Yahoo!®) appointments and Facebook® events (never miss a birthday again!). Of course, the Calendar app offers the common features that you’ve come to know and love, but it now also includes some compelling new features to help you organize your day:

People View: In addition to the traditional Day, Agenda, Week, Month views, you can now view your day based on the people you’re meeting with. This view provides additional information on your contacts pulled from LinkedIn®, including where you’ve met in the past.

Visual Cues: You’ll be able to more quickly scan and manage your calendar at a glance. For example, the Calendar app provides visual cues that identify days that have more appointments than those that are relatively light. For example, when you view your calendar at a glance, dates with many appointments will show up in a larger font while the dates in smaller fonts have fewer appointments. If you have a lot of appointment conflicts, a red highlight identifies the conflict so you can’t miss them!

Zoom in to a detailed view: From the “Week” view, you can go directly to a day’s calendar with ease. Simply tap any day to zoom into the details of that day, including the meetings you have scheduled and the people you will be meeting with.

Contacts: Your social hub

Your contacts are more than just an address and phone number, so why treat it like a rolodex? The new Contacts app acts as a social hub that helps you maintain a complete and current view of your contact’s social status.

Contact Linking: The majority of people use more than email and phone to stay in touch with their personal and professional contacts — Facebook, Twitter®, and LinkedIn are growing exponentially in their popularity and usability. The Contacts app allows you to automatically bring all these distinct social profiles into a single people-centric view in your address book – meaning you can set up one contact name and integrate all of their contact and social profile information into one profile. You also have the option to reduce duplicate entries, and manually link or de-couple your contacts from social profiles. Watch this demo to learn more.

Status Updates and People Views: Using information gathered from Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, the Contacts app lets you see your contact’s recent social status updates and common friends.

Meetings, Places, and News: Be prepared before walking into that meeting. For each of your contacts, you can view past (and future) meetings with that person, see the places you’ve met previously, and read news about their company.

Favorites and Video Chat: Mark your top contacts as a “favorite” for quicker access, and sort your address book by those contacts who also use BlackBerry PlayBook Video Chat.

We built the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet OS 2.0 email, calendar and contacts experience with the goal of providing the best tools for managing your busy life across all of your networks. I’m so proud of the team for pulling it off, and we’re just getting started! We have a ton of ideas, and look forward to getting your feedback.

]]>http://blogs.blackberry.com/2012/02/playbook-email-calendar-contacts-part-2/feed/0michaelcl1contacts-democalendar-democontacts-demo-tcalendar-demo-tHow BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 revolutionizes Email, Calendar and Contacts – again: Part 1 of 2http://blogs.blackberry.com/2012/02/playbook-email-calendar-contacts-part-1/
http://blogs.blackberry.com/2012/02/playbook-email-calendar-contacts-part-1/#respondTue, 21 Feb 2012 19:14:56 +0000http://blogs.blackberry.com/?p=12775]]>In January at CES 2012 and at BlackBerry® DevCon Europe, you had some great opportunities to get sneak peeks at what the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet OS 2.0 has to offer. We heard loud and clear that you wanted native email, calendar and contacts, and we’ve delivered something that we’re all very proud of. With BlackBerry PlayBook tablet OS 2.0, features like your email, calendar and contacts have unique social integration that is people-centric rather than app-centric.
The approach to these experiences is simple: If you think about how you interact with email, calendar, and contacts on a daily basis, you’re basically in two modes: triage (taking stock of what’s happening in your world) and acting.

Email and the Universal Inbox

The new Messages apps gives a nod to the past by continuing to build on proven experiences. The iconic BlackBerry splat noting the arrival of new messages in the universal inbox remains part of the core messaging experience. But the BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 messaging experience goes a step further; it has been extended to include ‘social messaging’, allowing you to directly integrate messages from some of the most common social networks: Facebook®, LinkedIn®, and Twitter®.

And to take it one step beyond just integrated social messaging, you can now see a contact’s social details right from the Messages application.

Once you have an inbox full of messages, the new Messages app delivers a suite of features that help make managing your inbox really easy:

Tabbed email: You can reference one email while you compose another, or put an email you’re in the middle of composing on hold, while you type out a quick response to another message.

Rich text editing: You can write and edit email like you would on a computer – including support for fonts, attributes and sizes, as well as formatting. You can even edit or insert your “in-line” comments in an email thread.

Message Threading and Quick response: Let’s face it – in an era of ubiquitous mobile devices, email is more chat-like than formal. You can choose to view your messages as threaded conversations rather than single messages. Thread messages reduce a conversation to one inbox entry, thus reducing the signal-to-noise ratio in your inbox.

BlackBerry Keyboard: Longtime users know the keyboard input on BlackBerry smartphones is clever, including auto-entry of periods at the end of sentences and “@” symbols for email addresses. The new PlayBook OS 2.0 keyboard also introduces next word prediction, which helps makes hammering out emails on a virtual keyboard so much easier.

Search: Sometimes you’re not exactly sure what you’re looking for. The search feature allows you to type out a partial string and constrain the search to specific recipient fields or subject, sent, received, and filter by when it was received (today, yesterday, even last week) – all in real time.

As you can see, there are some very cool things in the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet messaging experience. Hold tight for my next post on the Calendar and Contacts experience!

I’m excited to announce that the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ OS 2.0 software update officially launched worldwide today. In October, I spoke to you about some of the key features you could expect with the release of BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0. Today, I’m proud to tell you – we’ve delivered them.

As you will see, we’ve made updates and enhancements to some of the things you’ve told us you like the most. We’ve also brought you some new, highly anticipated features that you’ll find only on BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Let me tell you about my favorite BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 features:

All-New Built-In Functionality

I have to say, the features I’m most excited about with this launch are built-in email, calendar and contacts. Unique to BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0, you can now quickly manage all of your email accounts with a unified inbox, manage your schedule with new features like a People View of your day (which lets you quickly see everyone who is on your agenda for that day), and view your contacts as a social hub that contains information from popular social networks including Facebook®, Twitter®, and LinkedIn®.

Social Integration in Calendar & Contacts

The built in calendar is designed to pull in the information that matters to you from your social networks and make it available where and when you need it. Contact cards are dynamically populated with the latest real-time information from your Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts to create a consolidated view of your contacts most recent updates.

BlackBerry Bridge

Another feature I’m excited for you to try is the new BlackBerry Bridge functionality that allows you to use your BlackBerry smartphone as a remote control for your PlayBook. I’ve used this feature both for presentations in the office, and at home with my PlayBook tablet connected to my television.

Open On

Although it’s hard to choose only four, I will say that Open On definitely makes my list of favorite BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 features. This convenient functionality allows you to open your documents, photos and links from your BlackBerry smartphone onto your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet with one click. I often use Open On to review documents (PowerPoint, Word, and PDF) that people send me on my BlackBerry smartphone. It’s a great way to combine the convenience of my BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900 and the big screen on my PlayBook tablet.

These are just a few of the reasons I’m excited about today’s launch, and they’re just some of the great features that PlayBook OS 2.0 has to offer. Following the 2012 Consumer Electronics show, we heard a lot of great feedback on PlayBook OS 2.0 with reviews from Team BlackBerry. I’d love to hear what you think now that the software update has officially launched.

This post on the BlackBerry Help blog will provide more information about how to get started with your new PlayBook OS 2.0 update.

It’s the end of the week, so that means it’s Five Tip Friday! The focus this week: Five BlackBerry® smartphone shortcuts to help you speed through daily tasks. Some of you might already be using these tips, but for those who aren’t familiar with the following, here are some things you might want to know.

Today we are pleased to announce that Tungle has joined Research In Motion (RIM). We’re excited that the Tungle team is bringing their expertise in cloud-based, cross-platform, calendar management to the BlackBerry platform.

Tungle is a leading provider of cloud-based calendar and scheduling services that makes it easy for users to share their availability and schedule appointments regardless of their choice of desktop, mobile or cloud-based calendar. Tungle connects users on Google, Yahoo!, FaceBook, TripIt, Plancast, Outlook, iCal, LotusNotes, LotusLive, and WindowsLive. If you are not already familiar with them you can find out more about Tungle at http://www.tungle.me/.

BlackBerry is a fantastic solution for connecting users to the people and information that matter most throughout their day. By working with Tungle to add cloud-based, cross-platform calendar capabilities to the BlackBerry platform we can further enrich our customers’ experience with BlackBerry and continue to help them get things done.

– Tom Goguen, VP, Collaboration and Social Networking at Research In Motion (RIM)

One of the questions I get asked frequently is: “How can I wirelessly synchronize my Gmail Calendar and Contacts with my BlackBerry® smartphone?” With a BlackBerry smartphone data plan and BlackBerry® Device Software 5.0 or higher, this simple to do!

The first thing you want to do is make sure you have the right software on your BlackBerry smartphone. To do this, navigate to Options and click About. On the third line down, there will be a number like 5.0 Bundle 1602. This tells you are running BlackBerry Device Software 5.0. If you are using 4.7.1 or lower, you should check to see if there is an upgrade available for your device.